Theseartists engage in explorations regarding the scale of the self in relation to everything outside of it. Born of a common appreciation for space travel, mirrors, the mapping of uncharted wilderness, magic and concepts like Wheeler’s Participatory Anthropic Principle – the proposal that the universe requires conscious observers to exist – the exhibition reframes natural history and external observation as a form of self-investigation and vice versa. Presenting this work together is an attempt to position ourselves, not in a specific temporal or physical location, but in a relational neighborhood—within a field of interconnections and dependencies. Of particular interest is the rub between the physiological, psychological, and sociological aspects of being a human, and the systems, analogues, and interfaces that people generate to foster a connection with the cosmos. The things we make attempt to prop open these seams to find the edges of what we observe and what we imagine and where they might overlap; here is the world taking measure of itself, the cosmos peering in as we peer out.

Ariel Lavery graduated Magna Cum Laude with her BFA from the University of Colorado Boulder (2007) and received her MFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. (2013). She has exhibited extensively nationally including solo exhibitions at Zephyr Gallery in Louisville, KY, the River Campus Gallery at Southeast Missouri State University, Blue Star Contemporary Art Complex in San Antonio, TX, and The Packing Plant in Nashville, TN. Her work is in private collections in Maine, Vermont, Kentucky, Colorado, and Connecticut. She has organized, curated, and juried several exhibitions in Maine, Massachusetts, and Tennessee, and is member of COOP gallery, a Nashville based collective that curates artists into the Nashville arts scene. She is a 2013 recipient of the Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which helped her develop a project based on the culture of rural Murray, KY. Ariel currently serves as the Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Watkins College of Art Design and Film in Nashville, TN. ariellavery.wordpress.com

Christopher M. Lavery has exhibited his work nationally in Colorado, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, San Francisco, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Denver Art Museum, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as internationally in Columbia, Czech Republic, France, Israel, Mexico, Palestine, and Peru. In 2008, he was awarded the Emerging Public Artist Project Grant from the Colorado Percent for the Arts at Denver International Airport for his project entitled Cloudscape; a monumental scale project that won an award in 2010 from the Americans for the Arts Public Art Network. Christopher has held residency at the well-known Vermont Studio Center where he began to develop a new body of work about the rapidly developing global warming crisis and the melting of the polar icecaps. christopherlavery.wordpress.com

Matthew Weedman is a founding member of The Flinching Eye Collective. Their live experimental sound and multimedia show has toured to multiple venues around the U.S. and they were awarded an Idea Fund grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in 2014. Matthew is a co-writer and producer for the documentary film titled “The Magic History of Cinema” with Tom Garrett and John McLaughlin. The film explores the intertwining histories of magic and filmmaking. Matthew holds a BA in Film Studies and a BFA in Photography/New Media and an MFA in Sculpture and Post Studio Practices from The University of Colorado at Boulder. He grew up in central Illinois and currently lives in Huntsville, TX. matthewweedman.com

Jason Pearce Willome was born in San Antonio, Texas, and received a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2000, and an MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2003. Jason has exhibited his work in Honolulu, New Orleans, Texas, Colorado, Ohio, and Kentucky, as well as internationally in Colombia, Israel, and Palestine. Jason’s work has been featured on Beautiful Decay, Texas Public Radio, and Agave Magazine. Jason was an assistant professor in painting at the University of Hawai’i Manoa from 2007-2009, and has been a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at San Antonio since 2014. jasonpearcewillome.com

Ethan Worden received a BA in Literature and a BFA in Sculpture from the Universityof Colorado at Boulder in 2001, and an MFA from Mills College in 2008. Ethan has exhibited his work nationally including shows in San Francisco, Chicago, and Denver, as well as internationally in Lima, Peru. Ethan has called the Bay Area home since 2002, and currently works and lives with his family in Oakland, California. ethanworden.com